Bonney Lake wrestling just put the rest of the 3A classification on notice as the Panthers ran away with the 3A WIAA Region II wrestling championship at Bonney Lake High.

Bonney Lake earned its second consecutive regional team title behind six champions crowned under the lights.

“We’re not sending as many kids to state as we did last year (12), but what we’re sending is 10 really good wrestlers who can wrestle deep into the tournaments like they did today,” Bonney Lake coach Dan Pitsch said.

Yelm finished in second (163), Lincoln in third (142) and Bethel in fourth (131).

The Panthers started the finals in style as Brenden Chaowanipibool claimed Bonney Lake’s first district title when he pinned Bethel’s Coty Chabot in 1 minute, 44 seconds.

Brandon Kaylor (the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the 113-pound weight class by Washington Wrestling Report) followed suit when the junior sat on his 113 finals opponent Gavin Stewart to pick up the pin at 1:02.

After the finals win, Kaylor now owns both Bonney Lake’s school record for take downs in a single season (298) as well as the career record (784) entering the state championship as he goes for his third consecutive state title.

“I’m an all-around wrestler, not just a one-dimensional athlete,” Kaylor said.

Bethel’s Dante Springsteen continued his frantic pace towards the Tacoma Dome as the Braves standout won the 160 championship in dominant fashion after 19-6 major decision over Zayne Ball (Gig Harbor).

“It feels good (winning), and now I can go home and eat some cake,” said Springsteen who was celebrating his birthday on Saturday.

Springsteen is now 43-1 on the season with his lone loss coming in the finals at Gut Check Challenge last month.

“Yeah, that’s still eating at me a little bit,” Springsteen said. “But getting that state championship would mean a lot. Not just for me, but for my team and my family for all that they pushed me over the years.”

Lincoln was able to get four Abes into the finals, but only J.J. Dixon walked away with a championship after earning a 11-4 decision over Derrick Platt (Yelm) in the 182 finals.

“My main goal is state champ,” Dixon said. “Knowing that you’re not how here just to place. You have to know you’re out here to win a state championship.”

4A REGIONAL WRESTLING

Jaden Cassel of Auburn Riverside won the 106-pound title in the 4A Region I wrestling tournament at Todd Beamer, edging Lake Stevens’ Jake Bennett in a 9-2 decision.

It just was not enough to life the Ravens to the team title as the Vikings took first place with 240 points. The Ravens came in second with 141.5.

Enumclaw’s Jake Treece took one step closer to repeating as a state champion. He pinned Thomas Jefferson’s Jorge Rojas in 1:59, for the 132-pound regional title.

White River got titles from Weston Lyver at 138, Nate Moore at 145 and Ryan Redford at 170.

GIRLS REGIONAL WRESTLING

Tally Thomas isn’t your ordinary athlete.

For one, she is a Stanford University softball signee.

And for two, she won a 170-pound regional wrestling title on Saturday and helped the Federal Way girls wrestling team claim the team title with 173.5 points to second-place Yelm’s 151 points at Decatur.

Thomas reached the title match and won that won by injury default over teammate Marlin Gonzalez.

Federal Way’s Mariah Stewart also won a title, taking the 235-pound title over Decatur’s Gabrielle Boyd with a pin in 1 minute, 15 seconds.

Wilson’s Jasmin Parker-Borrero pinned her opponent, Rogers’ Mariya Gaither, in 1:44 for the 145-pound title. The junior will now head back to Mat Classic hoping to win her third state title.

Wilson’s Kathleen Flanagan took the 145-pound title right after Parker-Borrero, pinning Mount Rainier’s Giuliana Pepe in 1:02.

Pleasants’ younger sister, Raisa, lost to North Kitsap’s Holly Beaudoin, 4-1 for the 105-pound title.

3A SWIMMING

The Stadium High School boys swimming team took first place in the West Central District championships on Saturday at Hazen High School.

A dynamic freshmen duo had a lot to do with that. Stadium scored 261.5 points to second-place Wilson’s 218 points and North Thurston’s 201.

One of those ninth graders was Bryce Soriano, who took first place in the 100-yard breaststroke in 59.92 seconds to edge North Thurston’s Justin Ridgeway for the district title in the event. Soriano also took second in the 200-yard individual medley — finishing 0.27 seconds behind Wilson’s Evan Chard.

Then there was Gabriel Nickels. He won the district title in the 200 freestyle in 1:48.80 to edge Wilson’s Chris Harkness (1:50.25).

But Harkness got Nickels back in the 500 freestyle, finishing in 4:50.12 to take the title by a razor-thin margin — 0.14 seconds — over Nickels.

Soriano and Nickels combined to help Stadium’s 200 freestyle relay team — alongside juniors Johnny Armstrong and Ben Brick — win the district title in 1:30.96 and they took third in the 400 freestyle relay.

North Thurston’s Nate Johnson, Logan Anderston, Ridgeway and Jeffrey Harn led the Rams to the 400 freestyle title, finishing in 3:19.87 — which was just off the meet-record time of 3:15.31. North Thurston also won the 200 medley relay, finishing in 1:42.81.

Harn for North Thurston had a strong night as the anchor for winning relays and didn’t stop there either, winning both the 100 freestyle as well as the 50 freestyle on his own in which he will he go to state to compete in both solo events.

In this huge night, Harn broke the 17-year-old school record held by Cameron Barcliff for the 50 yard freestyle when he finished with a 22.09. The meet record is 21.23.

Wilson’s Chard also won the 100 backstroke in 53.89 seconds to go with his 200 IM victory, edging Lakes’ Preston Bocchi.

2A SWIMMING

Seth Koivisto had the top preliminary time in the 200 individual medley.

But he couldn’t keep up with Kingston’s Ethan Fox in the finals, who improved from a 2:04.27 in Friday’s preliminary round to 1:58.47 on Saturday to edge second-place Koivisto’s 2:02.82.

That helped Kingston take the 2A West Central District team title with 234 points to second-place Steilacoom’s 233 points.

The 200 medley relay also mirrored the final team results. Kingston took first with competitors Tim Gallagher, Nolan Platz, Quincy Walker, and Bryce Hoffer putting a 1:40.58.

Steilacoom took second with Noah Burlingame, Koivisto, Vaughn Christensen, and Chris Grandinette combining for a time of 1:41.15.

The Sentinels rebounded to take the 200 freestyle relay title, finishing in 1:32.73 to edge Kingston by less than a second.

Koivisto also finished in second place in the 100 breaststroke behind Fox.